13

The sun, lingering low in the sky to the west, is casting its last smouldering light across the sea, and trees. Our shoes crunch the dandelions that cry out for attention as we move towards home. “Tonight would be a perfect night to sleep outside,” I say aloud. As I wait longingly for a response, I look up at the sky waiting for the stars to turn on.

I’ve always been interested in astronomy. I love to lie in bed dreaming up a life as an astronaut. The light fixture hanging above my head would slowly turn into my space shuttle cantering its way through Earth’s atmosphere and beyond. Slowly my daydream would blend into the sounds of my mother cleaning the floor outside my room and I would imagine being awarded the greatest-astronaut-to-ever-live award. My navigational skills through the universe are a force to shatter records.

“What’d you say?” my friend finally replied.
“Oh… don’t worry about it.”

As I near the end of my fantasy, I realize I’ve thrown away too many minutes on these thoughts. I’m now surrounded by a beautiful sunset that reaches from coastline to coastline. Every single house and tree is now highlighted by a golden wisp of sunlight. Everything about this place demands affection. I’m not sure my friend understands the beautiful complexity of our landscape. He really isn’t into nature and life -- I can’t decide what his interests are actually.


It’s beginning to get dark and cold, so I tell my friend to quicken the pace and I tighten my parka around my mid-section. I feel my insides react to the sudden drop in temperature and realize just how long we have been gone for. That must be why; we’re getting closer to the beach. I can see the rusted boats – Stella Lynn, Pacific Lady – rocking gently against the docks.

“Is your dad still away in Ontario?” my friend asks.
“…He said he would be back in two weeks…” I whisper.
“Why are you so upset? It’s not like your dad is dead, it’s not like you have to deal with your mother bringing home drunks to sleep with and then you wake up in the morning to sounds of puking and cursing. Just be glad he’s alive.”

I don’t know how to deal with these outbursts of anger and disappointment. I’m not great with words. My fears, my dreams, my desires are stuck within the walls of my brain, and never make the trip to my mouth. I’m classified as one of the losers at my school and so is my friend. I guess the only reason why we are friends is because no one would be our partner in science class. We relied on each other as excuses not to be left behind.

My friends’ dad died on an airplane. He was a flight attendant for Air Canada and had a heart attack while serving coffee to someone in first class. Imagine asking for some hot coffee and instead getting a stained skirt and a dead guy on your lap. After the funeral, my friend gave me a model airplane that his dad had given him. “Take it, it never meant anything to me.” This is when my interest in aerodynamics became an obsession. My goal in life is to either be an astronaut or a pilot.

“Excuse me! You can’t just shut off like that in a middle of a conversation I was talking to you! If you’re ever going to have real friends you need to learn conversational skills!”

I wonder how much money it will cost to go to space camp this summer. I’m dying to get out of this life I have.

“How much longer until we get to your house?” my friend asks impatiently.
“About another mile…”
“And we took the long route because…?”
“I heard that there was a meteorite shower tonight and I wanted to see it.”
“You need to get a life!”
“Tell me about it.”

Just then dashes of light appeared through the haze of the clouds. At first I thought it was another Air Canada airplane but it only lingered in the sky for a second or two. I knew it was my meteorite shower; it had come to say hi to me. I crave to be near the water to see the sky better. I toss my backpack into the neighbouring shrub and run into tall grass bordering the sand.

“Where are you going?!” my friend yelled.
“To see the meteorites better!”
“Give me a break…”
“There! I saw one! I swear I saw one!”
“Let me look with you.”
“Really?”
“Well I have nothing else to do.”

Just as my friend stepped out onto the sand with me, a shooting star flashed before our eyes and seemed to have trickled down into the water before us.

“DID YOU SEE THAT?” I exclaimed.
“That was the best thing…”
“I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! IT’S IN THE WATER!”

And with that I tore off my parka and jumped into the freezing water. I made my way through the water to the place where I saw the ripples coming from. It must be on the floor of the water body. I bent down and searched the bottom for the meteorite, not knowing what kind of texture to expect. I grabbed what I assumed was the meteorite.

“Look! Look! It’s the meteorite! Oh, I can’t believe this is happening to me!”
“Bring it here, let me see it!” my friend exclaimed.

Whenever I imagined what space looked like, I always pictured a painting hanging in a gallery. It never moved, even though every other painting and person constantly gathered their belongings and shifted a little. It was a black painting with the smallest microscopic dots of colour splattered against it. But now that I saw this meteorite up close, I realized that there were no colours in space.

“It’s melting in our hands!”
“Put it on the sand,” my friend said.

I gently laid it down against the rough texture of the sand. It was then that I realized the juxtaposition of this piece of space junk lying down on Earth’s surface.

“What do we do with it?” my friend asked.
“I don’t know I want to keep it!”
“Why do you get to keep it? I want it!”
”Look, let’s see if we can split it into pieces – one for me, and one for you.”

My knees fell into the sand as I braced myself to split open our meteorite. I grabbed my pocket knife and gently began sawing it apart. Amazingly, the centre of it was soft and started to crumble underneath the pressure.

It was then that I realized what I had picked up.

“Here, you can have the whole thing, I don’t want it anymore,” I said.
“Why? Are you sure?”
“Take it, it doesn’t mean anything to me anymore.”

It was just a clump of frozen sand. I wonder where that meteorite went.